Albo says he was chastised for accepting promo items from H&M, a sponsor of the trip, but “H&M’s representation on the trip was a plastic water bottle in the gift bag. I left it in the hotel room because I already have several promotional water bottles back home.

“I was getting confused about how pristine I needed to be to write for The Paper. It appeared that if you wanted to be a freelancer there, you couldn’t attend anything where you received something promotional, ever.”

As Albo concludes:

“I was punished because I was caught. The news monolith needed to cut its losses with me because if it didn’t, more would have to come out. I was perilously close to exposing a secret underground economy of promotion — favors and junkets and banquets and gifts that keeps the city in motion, and keeps underpaid writers at work.